A group of teens forced a woman to miscarry with a brutal attack after she and her husband dared to stray onto a Chicago street that the youths claimed as their own.
The 41-year-old mother was returning home with her husband from a date night on Friday when they were surrounded by at least 10 young people in the city's notorious Streeterville neighborhood.
The woman, who gave her name only as Nina, told Fox32that she was pepper-sprayed in the face, kicked in the stomach and lost a clump of hair as her husband was held back by the mob.
Police arrived at the scene and arrested a 14-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl. The pair were each charged with one count of misdemeanor battery and released pending court appearances.
'They didn't steal anything. They said like, "we own the street, we own the street. You can't just walk around prancing in your little dress".
'They were saying things that just didn't make any sense to me because they don't know me.'
The woman photographed some of the hair that had been wrenched from her head by the gang
The 41-year-old was left with a bald patch and bruising to her eye after the teen takedown
She and her husband did not want to give their full names, but warned of the rising crime in the city.
It is less than two weeks since residents held an emergency town hall to demand action on teen gangs running riot in a neighborhood where assaults have jumped 12 percent in the last year.
'We moved over here thinking it would be quieter,' said Streeterville resident Mark Wolfe.
'Now we have we have what my wife and I refer to as the 'Saturday night scaries' because of the kids that come in and just cause havoc.'
'Everything happened from behind us,' the latest victim said.
'First someone approached him and hit his head, punched him in the head, and he looked back and he looked at me and told me 'run'.
'Another lady came to me and dragged me with my hair on the ground.
'I started screaming she started pepper-spraying me right in the face, in the eyes.
'Another person starts stomping all over me, and my husband ran towards me to save me and over 10 people held him.'
'We were just trying to go home to our kid, 'leave us alone, why are you doing this to us?'
Streeterville residents fear they face a summer of misery at the hands of teen gangs congregating in spite of a 10pm curfew
Alderman Brian Hopkins, left, and Chicago Police CaptainDavid Koenig had faced demands to crack down on the gangs at an angry town hall just two weeks earlier
Nina was two weeks pregnant at the time of Friday's attack and lost the baby hours later.
'We believe in faith, and it wasn't meant to be,' she said. 'So, we don't know why this happened to us.'
The neighborhood gained notoriety in 2020 when celebrity Jussie Smollett staged a bizarre 'racially motivated attack' on himself there, but violent crimes have been soaring across the Dem-run city.
Aggravated battery is up 20 percent in the year to date compared with the same period in 2021, while robberies are up 38 percent and thefts up 77 percent.
Forty-one people were shot and nine died, including a five-year-old girl, over the Memorial Day weekend alone.
Police who arrived at the scene of Friday's attack arrested a 14-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl. The pair have not been identified.
Both have been charged with one count of misdemeanor battery and have been released by police pending appearances at Cook County Juvenile Court.
'We're asking the state attorney to consider upgrading those charges to felony charges resulting in great bodily harm,' said local alderman Brian Hopkins.
'Both victims suffered extensive injuries and the medical examinations are ongoing.'
There is supposed to be a city-wide 10pm curfew in force for unaccompanied minors.
Nina's husband suffered extensive cuts and bruises as he tried to defend his wife
'We've never had the issues in the neighborhood that we are currently having,' said Deborah Gershbein, president of the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents
But residents at the town hall said they fear the neighborhood is heading for a summer of misery as teen gangs take possession of its streets.
'I'm concerned. I'm an older person, and we don't go out at night anymore,' Barbara Webb told ABC7.
'We've never had the issues in the neighborhood that we are currently having,' said Deborah Gershbein, president of the Streeterville Organization of Active Residents.
'Everyone is concerned because summer is just beginning.'
